Principals' Message 

 Hello Parents and Friends,

This will be the final newsletter for Term 1.  It has been a wonderful term of learning at TPPS and we are so proud of our students, staff and our entire community.  Term 1 will finish at 2:30pm next Thursday and we will recommence on Monday 20 April. We wish everyone a safe and enjoyable term break and a very Happy Easter.

Outstanding improvement in attendance! We are on the right track! 

We are so pleased to announce that we have seen significant improvement to our student attendance in Term 1 compared to last year.  This is a truly exceptional achievement by our students and families.  Over 300 students received an attendance certificate yesterday by being at school over 95% of the time. Pleasingly, we have 140 students that have a 100% attendance record.  Please see the table below for the difference between Term 1 attendance in 2025 and 2026. 

These results are such a great start to the year.  With this improved attendance our students are learning more in the classroom, building confidence, developing stronger relationships with their teachers and peers, and giving themselves the very best opportunity to reach their potential. 

At our assemblies yesterday, we announced the Term 1 winners for our student attendance awards.  All students that have 95% attendance are eligible for the prizes.  A huge congratulations to the following students.

1st prize- school drink bottle, $25 gift voucher for book shop - Deanna P 4Y 

2nd prize – school drink bottle, $3 gift voucher for school canteen - Dahlia K 1FC

3rd prize – school drink bottle - Sofia T 5S 

Year award - Students that have 100% attendance for the entire school year will receive a special badge that can be worn at school.  They will also receive a school drink bottle and attend a special lunch with the Principal. Currently there are 140 students eligible for this award.  At this rate, we will have to book a catering company to prepare the lunch!

In all seriousness, these are excellent results and we thank our families for working with us in this most important area. We look forward to seeing these results continue and improve across the year. 

Please see all the students below that are above 95% attendance for Term 1.  Well done! 

Harmony Day at TPPS 

We had a wonderful time celebrating Harmony Day at Templestowe Park yesterday. Students from across the school dressed up in traditional clothing from their cultural background or in colours representing their culture.  Everyone looked amazing! Throughout the day, students undertook Harmony Day activities and our special assemblies were a fantastic celebration of the people that make TPPS such a safe, fun and welcoming community. We learnt so much about the different cultures within our school from the students that presented at our assemblies.  We thank them for sharing this with us.  

Harmony Week is the celebration that recognises our diversity and brings together Australians from all different backgrounds. It’s about inclusiveness, respect and a sense of belonging for everyone. At Templestowe Park, we have an inclusive, thriving and diverse learning community from all parts of the world. This makes Templestowe Park such a wonderful place to learn and grow. 

Sustainability Award for TPPS - 3 Stars! 

Templestowe Park, with the assistance of Eastern Alliance for Sustainable Learning (EASL), are working towards becoming a “ResourceSmart School”.  ResourceSmart Schools is a Victorian Government initiative that helps schools to become more sustainable.  At our assembly on Thursday we had a special visit from Ashlee Lambton (ResourceSMART Schools Facilitator) to present us with a star for our 'Waste' module. We have now completed the ‘Core’, ‘Biodiversity’ and 'Waste' modules. This means we have 3 out of the 5 stars.  This a truly magnificent effort. 

Our sensational Sustainability teacher, Ms Conn, works with our sustainabilty leaders and students everyday to make our school  a truly environmentally friendly learning environment.  We can't thank Ms Conn and our students enough for everything they do.  

I have included a beautiful piece of feedback from Ashlee to the TPPS community below: 

 "My name is Ashlee, I'm from EASL and we deliver the RSS program. I've been fortunate enough to be working with this school for the last few years and seen it  continue to flourish in it's sustainability initiatives, not only for the environmental and community benefits of sustainability, but for those that speak in money. By reducing your impact and utilities usage, you've saved over $260k on bills from 2009 -2026.

 

Just last year ,working on your 3rd Star for the Waste module, you also saved $3,389 reducing landfill, and $1,867 on reducing paper purchasing - just to name a couple. 

But it's more than that. This is a tiny reflection of the amazing work Ms Conn, and her sustainability curriculum, your Sustainability Representatives, and all the classes involved in monitoring waste and recycling, nude food, waste free policies, litterbugs campaign, incredible composting and multi waste system, and the parents and rest of community involved, to make this happen. Sustainability is an ongoing team effort and your school exemplifies this. 

 

By achieving your 3rd star, you are now only 1 of 27 schools with this as your highest star. That's out of the 400 participating ResourceSmart SCHOOLS in Victoria!

Over the last 3 years you've reduced your landfill waste. This contributes to your Co2 reduction of 267 tonne of Co2 = 198 petrol cars off the road every year."

Ashlee Lambton 

Term 1 Progress Reports

This year, TPPS will once again be sending home Progress Reports as part of the yearly cycle of providing formal information to parents regarding their children. Term One Progress Reports are simple, easy to read reports that will provide feedback to parents regarding their child’s behaviour, punctuality and effort shown in Literacy and Numeracy during Term 1.  They will clearly give the reader an understanding of how students have settled in and the effort they have shown.  While there are some similarities to the semester reports that are provided in June and December, they are very different largely due to the information they are delivering. 

The table below helps explain the similarities and differences.

The introduction of Progress Reports was a result of parent and teacher feedback indicating that during the Meet the Teacher discussions (held in the first month of the school year) there is not a whole lot of time for the teacher to talk about how students have settled in to the new school year as the purpose of the discussions is more about getting to know students and families a lot better.  We are confident that the Progress Reports will not only give families access to information a lot sooner, they will also help students / teachers / parents set goals regarding behaviour and effort earlier in the current school year.

Covered Outdoor Learning Area (COLA) to be erected over the school holidays!

Over the school holidays the COLA will be erected over the basketball court.  The installation of the steel structure will take place from Monday 13th – Tuesday 14th of April (second week of the school holidays). During this time large trucks will be entering from Church road.  We ask that all families and the wider community stay away from Templestowe Park PS on these days.  You will see on the image attached where the trucks will be entering the school grounds. 

TeamKids vacation care is safe to take place and we have been in communication with them about the use of the school grounds during this time. 

When students return to school in Term 2 the COLA will be fully erected.  The basketball courts will remain closed at this time as the synthetic grass installers will commence their work.  When the synthetic grass is fully installed, we will open the entire area to our students and school community.  We are so excited for this outstanding addition to our school.  It will provide such a fantastic place for our students and community. 

School Council 2026

The first meeting of the 2026 School Council was held last Wednesday; we are pleased to announce the following office bearers.

President – Shalina Navaratnam

Vice President – Peter Manolakos

Treasurer – Amy Gunzburg

Congratulations to our new School Council leaders! 

 At our first meeting we looked at the year ahead noting that there is plenty in store for the Templestowe Park community in 2026.  We will keep you updated on the work of the School Council.

Parent Payments for 2026 - Please Make Your Payments 

You will notice on your Newsfeed under Course Confirmation that the 2026 Parent Payments are now available to be paid on Compass. 

The process on how to pay the charges is outlined in the letter and guide on the Compass Newsfeed. 

Once again, the student charges for Prep and Grades 1-6 are different.  Our Grade 1-6 students use student textbooks while our Prep students do not.  Please see more information on what these levies cover in the attached letter. 

Thank you for your vital contribution to our voluntary levies.  Without your contributions we would not be able to offer our extensive and diverse learning programs, purchase the excellent resources we have and improve our facilities.

Parent Payments & Curriculum Contributions – What does it cover? 

Without the contributions of families, the school would only be able to purchase simple resources that allow the delivery of free instruction.  This would essentially be a pencil and a piece of paper for each lesson. This would greatly impact the quantity and quality of classroom and specialist consumables/resources that each student could use.  It could also mean the cancellation of the excellent online subscriptions and spelling/numeracy workbooks that we provide all students.  Additionally, we could not maintain our buildings and grounds to the level that we do. We would possibly need to request the community to undertake working bees to cut grass, maintain gardens and undertake building maintenance.  

The Grade 1-6 Curriculum Contributions provide the following resources for our Grade 1-6 students. Our Grade Prep resources are slightly different but are very extensive too.  

• Curriculum Consumables: covering stationery items including but not limited to: scrapbooks, exercise books, display books, art folio, document wallet foolscap, pencils/ pens (depending on grade), pencil case, colour pencils/wax crayons, white board markers, wooden ruler, sharpener, erasers, glue sticks, scissors, etc. ($55)
• Consumables for Art ($45) 
• Consumables for STEM ($40)
• Consumables for Literacy ($40)
• Consumables for Mathematics ($40)
• Consumables for Language ($25)
• Consumables for Food Tech ($15)

• Consumables for Wellbeing ($20) 

Student Workbooks ($50 – also subsidised by the school) 

• Spelling Mastery Student Workbook

• New Wave Mental Maths Student Workbook 

•  

Online Subscriptions

• Maths Online Subscription ($15)
• Literacy Online Subscription ($15)

• Other subscriptions ($15)

Like many other schools across Victoria, we do not request parents to buy these resources via book packs.  It is the School Council’s aim to provide these resources to all children and not have some miss out.  We are a values-based school and this does not fit with our RRIPO ethos.  The school has collected 77% of student fees in 2026, compared to 89% in 2025.  This is a significant drop and has left quite a large hole in the 2026 school budget.

If assistance is required, please reach out and we can help.  Please contact Sanober in the school office or Mark to discuss. 

A huge thank you to all the families that have already made the payments.  It is greatly appreciated. 

Facilities work on the holidays

Over the school holidays the exterior of the Prep classrooms will be painted.  This will provide an excellent uplift of our Prep precinct.  We will also continue to clear the CAFÉ area in front of our back oval.  Unfortunately, this area has reached its lifespan. When this area is cleared, we will look to revamp the area with input from our Junior School Council. 

Sushi Day is Back! 

We are very happy to inform you that our first Sushi Day for 2026 will take place on Wednesday 1 April. Sushi days will then take place monthly after this time. 

The following Sushi will be available: 

·        Tuna Sushi $5.20

·        Chicken Sushi $5.20

·        Avocado Sushi $5.20

·        Cucumber Sushi $5.00

Each roll comes with one Soy Sauce. Any additional sauces are 30 cents.

All QuickCliq orders must be completed by Monday 30th March 8.00am. 

All cash orders (exact money) are to be sent to the canteen via the classroom by Monday 30th March 9.00am.  The office are unable to accept any orders.

No order requests will be accepted after these times.

The standard canteen menu will also be available on this day. Please click here to access QuickCliq. 

Have a fantastic weekend! 

Mark Roberts                       Brian Cleary                                       Robyn Twyford                                    

PRINCIPAL                           ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL                  ASSISTANT PRINCIPAL